THE PHONENDOSCOPE IN MEDICAL AND VETERINARY PRACTICE 837^ 
THE PHONENDOSCOPE IN MEDICAL AND VETERINARY 
PRACTICE. 
By Prof. A. Vachetti, of the University <'F Pisa. 
Seveial medical and veterinary journals, foreign as well as 
Italian, have spoken of this new means of diagnostic examina¬ 
tions which has been invented by Italians, Professors Anrelio 
Bianchi and Kugenio Banzi, of Florence. As yet the apparatus 
is little known by ns, though it well deserves to become more 
popular in general practice as well as in the medical schools on 
account of the remarkable service it renders. 
It is a metallic tambour (C), covered on one side with a 
very thin vibrating sheet 
of ebony which renders 
the instrument very sensi¬ 
tive to all sounds. Inside 
of - the drum is a little 
vibrator. On the opposite 
of it are two apertures, 
into which two little 
metallic tubes are fitted. 
To these are attached rubber tubes, at the extremities of which 
are perforated, olive-shaped buttons of wood. 
After the instrument is placed on the part to be examined^ 
either upon the skin or over the clothing, the examiner taking 
care not to produce friction while applying the phonendoscope^ 
he inserts the two olive-shaped buttons into his ears, in such a 
way that they penetrate well into the external auditory canals, 
and that the perforations of the olives have the same direction 
as the canals. Then he will perceive very distinct, by the 
much increased normal and pathological sounds of the heart,, 
the lungs, the nostrils, the larynx, the trachea, the pleura, the 
pericardium, the veins and arteries, the cranium, the stomach,, 
the intestines, the peritoneum, the articulations, the tendons 
and other sounds, according to the parts under examination. 
To diminish the exeessive intensity of the sounds, one places 
